Make an appointment with
So that you can make an appointment, the calendar will open in a new tab on the personal profile of your contact person.
Create an onsite appointment with
So that you can make an onsite appointment, the appointment request will open in a new tab.
Versatile use of CO2 in the brewing industry
Brewers need CO2 to force-carbonate their beers for the pleasant, percolating mouthfeel consumers demand, as well as for the requisite effervescence for foam formation. Because CO2 is slightly heavier than ambient air, which is laden with potentially beer-spoiling oxygen and germs, breweries also use the gas to purge air out of their tanks, bottles, cans, and kegs before filling them. Finally, pressurized CO2 is the preferred medium to push wort and beer through transfer hoses and to move it through draft lines from kegs to taps. Breweries usually purchase industrially produced CO2 in pressurized metal tanks or cylinders; and, until very recently, the gas has been readily available around the world ... but no longer!
How Is Industrial CO2 Produced?
The most common source of food-grade CO2 is the nitrogen fertilizer industry, which generates the gas as a waste product. Nitrogen fertilizer is produced in a multi-step process that starts with hydrogen gas sourced from natural gas (CH4, also known as methane) and nitrogen (N2) derived from the atmosphere. Under conditions of high heat and pressure, hydrogen combines with nitrogen to form ammonia (NH3), which, in turn, oxidizes to become ammonium nitrate fertilizer (NH4 NO3). The left-over carbon portion (C) of the methane gas oxidizes readily into CO2. Fertilizer producers capture this CO2, purify it, and sell for commercial use by many industries, including breweries. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the world’s agriculture has a voracious appetite of some 200 million metric tons (MT) of fertilizer per year, of which almost 120 million MT is nitrogen-based. The rest is phosphorus- or potassium-based. With the rise in world population and thus fertilizer and food production, the sudden shortage of CO2 clearly demands an explanation.
The Geography of Industrial CO2 Production and Consumption
Unfortunately, the key resource for CO2 production, natural gas, is very unevenly distributed around the globe (Table 1). So is the production of nitrogen-based fertilizer (Table 2) and of beer (Table 3). Importantly, there is relatively little overlap between the geographical distributions of the materials required to manufacture CO2, the manufacturing locations, and the demand for CO2 by breweries. This means that natural gas or CO2 need to be transported long-distance through pipelines or in containers by sea and by land. The seamless delivery of CO2 to the world’s breweries, therefore, depends on a functioning global logistics and trading system … a condition that current events have called into question!
The three tables reveal that Russia is one of the key players in the production of nitrogen fertilizer and thus of commercial CO2. It owns almost one quarter of the world’s natural gas reserves, followed by Iran and Qatar, which together hold roughly another quarter, while the fourth- to tenth-placed countries combined hold a third quarter. By far the largest producers of nitrogen fertilizers and thus of CO2 as a byproduct, are China, the United States, India, and Russia, in that order. Comparing the tables, only Russia, the United States, China, and Saudi Arabia (marked in yellow) rank among the top 10 countries for both owning natural gas and producing nitrogen fertilizer. Of these, only China, the USA, and Russia, also rank among the world’s top 10 beer producers (marked in orange).
How CO2 Is Transported
If 1 MT of CO2 is stored in its gaseous state at atmospheric pressure, it occupies a space of 556.2m³ (19,642 square foot). Therefore, industrial volumes of CO2 require gigantic holding containers, which is why the gas is compressed for transportation in metal tanks or cylinders. This reduces its volume. As the pressure increases to the so-called critical point, which for CO2 is 73.8 bar (1,070 psi) at a temperature of 31.1 °C (87.8 °F), the gas even becomes liquid (like LNG and LPG, for instance), which is one established method for transporting gasses on a large scale. Lastly, CO2 becomes solid at −78.5 °C (−109.2 °F) when it is called dry ice, which also has many industrial applications (see below).
Competition for CO2
Breweries are not the only enterprises relying on CO2. Here is a selection of industries competing for it:
- Fire extinguishers are filled with CO2 at about 55 bar (roughly 800 psi), at room temperature.
- Life rafts and jackets are often inflated with CO2.
- The makers of carbonate water and soft drinks require the gas.
- Blanketing plants in greenhouses with CO2 promotes their photosynthesis and growth.
- Abattoirs pump CO2 into livestock holding areas to stun and immobilize the animals before slaughter.
- Producers of meats and cold cuts, frozen and processed foods, and baked goods use CO2 to purge air from packages. This prevents or delays bacterial growth and extends the product shelf life.
- Green coffee beans are soaked in compressed CO2, which absorbs and removes caffeine.
- Liquefied CO2 passed through olive paste cold-extracts extra virgin olive oil.
- Dry ice keeps many foods fresh in transport.
- During some invasive surgeries, CO2 is used to inflate and stabilize body cavities for easier access to organs.
- So-called CO2 lasers remove warts and moles.
- Many air-conditioning/heat-pump systems and refrigerators use a CO2 refrigerant to provide cooling.
The COVID Pandemic and CO2 Demand
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an indirect, but significant impact on the demand for CO2 because, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control, the vaccines used to combat the virus need to be transported at an ultra-low temperature of -80 to -60 °C (-112 to -76 °F). Afterwards, they can be stored at 2 to 8 °C (36 to 46 °F) for up to 30 days. Blocks of dry ice, that is, CO2 in its solid state (see above), turns out to be the most practical refrigerant for vaccine transports. Because the pandemic has affected the entire world population of some 8 billion people, the unusual and sudden demand for dry ice obviously had an impact on the amount of CO2 available to breweries and other users.
H3: Outlook
Most recently, several factors have combined to create a perfect storm in the global supply of CO2. First, there is the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which was followed by many goods and currency embargos in retaliation against the aggressor, leading to significant disruptions in the global trade in natural gas, fertilizers, and CO2. Next, the world reacted to upheavals as well as military and political saber rattling in such important links in the CO2 supply chain as China and Iran. In parallel, the COVID pandemic created an unforeseen spike in the demand of dry ice. Together, these forces created a supply bottleneck for breweries already struggling with inflationary pressures on all fronts. Fortunately, the fermentation process, too, is a great and largely untapped source of CO2. This presents an opportunity for breweries to capture their own CO2 as a way out of the crisis. The next two installments of this article series will explain how the technology for CO2 capture in the brewery works and how it is being miniaturized to make it practical and affordable even for relatively small operations.
Outlook
Most recently, several factors have combined to create a perfect storm in the global supply of CO2. First, there is the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which was followed by many goods and currency embargos in retaliation against the aggressor, leading to significant disruptions in the global trade in natural gas, fertilizers, and CO2. Next, the world reacted to upheavals as well as military and political saber rattling in such important links in the CO2 supply chain as China and Iran. In parallel, the COVID pandemic created an unforeseen spike in the demand of dry ice. Together, these forces created a supply bottleneck for breweries already struggling with inflationary pressures on all fronts. Fortunately, the fermentation process, too, is a great and largely untapped source of CO2. This presents an opportunity for breweries to capture their own CO2 as a way out of the crisis. The next two installments of this article series will explain how the technology for CO2 capture in the brewery works and how it is being miniaturized to make it practical and affordable even for relatively small operations.
